Parents may have new tools for filtering out the seamy side of
cyberspace by early next year as a result of a new alliance of more
than 20 companies seeking to set technical standards to foster
development of personalized ratings systems for online content.

Operating under the auspices of the World Wide Web Consortium, the new
industry committee, expected to be announced Monday, would merge the
smut-fighting efforts of the consortium with the Information Highway
Parental Empowerment Group (IHPEG), an organization backed primarily by
Microsoft Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp.

The goal of the committee is to develop standards that allow computers
to exchange information on content ratings that can then be used to
block or permit access to an online site. Called the Platform for
Internet Content Selection (or PICS), the standards would allow outside
companies to create their own ratings systems that could be marketed to
families.

Parents then could block their children's access to any site that does
not carry the equivalent of a ``Good Housekeeping'' seal for
family-suitable electronic content. Parents would have the option of
buying ratings filter software for their home computers or relying on
access providers to offer the filter options online, said Jim Miller,
research scientist with the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, which
is coordinating the industry partnership.

Reference software code that can be used to develop the actual rating
systems will be available to committee members by the end of the year,
with general release of the software to outside developers on a
royalty-free basis set for the end of January. Such a timetable should
result in the release of rating systems designed for the commercial
market by March or April, Miller said.